Small Girls and Magic Tricks
"Small Girls and Magic Tricks" is the 2nd episode in the second season of Campaign 2.0, and the 10th episode overall in the campaign. Summary * Well, we can’t take the Birthstone with us - at least not in its entirety. We decided to chisel a piece of it out. It’s a delicate operation… but Bryna successfully nicks a sizable chunk of it out. Hooray— OH MY GOD, ALL THE SURROUNDING TREES HAVE COME TO LIFE AND A BUNCH OF WISPS FLOOD THE CHAMBER. * Thomal really hammered into these guys with his Storm Herald abilities and the good ol’ whack and slash. Needless to say, we won the fight. Bryna takes what she’d collected of the Birthstone and we all leave the cave. * We arrive back at Nir Dorrun. There, we meet a lady who’s wearing a nice little sun hat, and her face is shrouded by a black veil. This is Angeal Vilhelm, a life cleric played by Lyle! Angeal’s a little troubled. She’s going out to fetch groceries for her grandpa. We decide to help her with that! * But before that, we watch a cool-ass card trick performance held by a grossly ostentatious lavender tiefling named Wonder! * Bryna recognizes the dude as a former alumni of the Augury. There, he accidentally set fire to a portion of the bard district in one of his performances. Wonder’s having another show in about 4 hours, so we keep note of that and plan to check it out later. * We head to the general store where we pick up all the groceries Angeal needs. During that, Sulelia casts Divine Sense, and strangely enough detects undead beings 50 feet below the surface. * Having finished our grocery shopping, we follow Angeal to her grandpa’s house. It’s a quaint little cottage on the campus of the Augury. Angeal’s grandpa is Halsey Vilhelm, a professor at the Augury who specializes in ranger and clerical magic. As a fellow hunter, he recognizes Gareth, a member of the Wolfsbane family. * The entire cottage is decked out in raven motifs. Bryna asks whether they’re followers of the Raven Queen, and it just so happens that Angeal is a follower of her. We decide to hire Angeal for her services! She has us promise to help her build a temple dedicated to her lady, and we have a deal. * We head back to Bryna’s lab. Home sweet home! We have to teach Gareth how to use a shower, seeing as he’s lived in the woods for his whole life. * Bryna finds a letter from her parents at her workstation. She’d written to them upon returning home after her death, notifying them of the fact, and has received a response. The Novells ask Bryna to visit them at their estate, and hope for a visit soon. * Alright, now it’s time. Time to place the Birthstone in Bryna’s clockwork mechanical dragon and it come to life and be awesome. Except… nothing happens. A few faulty parts in the machine means Bryna’s gotta give it some repairs before it can function. * So, we go to town to buy building materials! Sulelia also wants to buy a nice dress for future dates with Daisy, so Bryna takes her and Angeal to her favorite boutique where they have dresses designed for them. * Thomal and Gareth try to investigate the giant ass catacombs below Nir Dorrun. They’ve been completely sealed up for a very long time, and we’re assuming that’s where the undead Sulelia sensed earlier are. * We head to Helm’s Bastion to check up on Landen. We end up dragging him along with us for drinks later! Eventually, we all reconvene for Wonder’s show. Highlights include funny card tricks and stabby sword tricks. Thomal is not a fan of either. * Sulelia asks Wonder to accompany us for the night, and we all sit down for drinks at the Waterways. * There, Sulelia uses her Divine Sense and detects fiendish energy emanating from a particular patron there. She leaves us to investigate. * Sulelia goes over to the dude and asks him why he’s giving off fiendish energy. He narrows his eyes. “How’s your mother?” he asks. “She’s doing fine,” Sulelia shoots back. The fiend dude presses her even further, and tells her about how nice the chance to see her again would be. He offers to sign up a contract to see that happen, and Sulelia says she’ll think about it. She returns to the table looking as if she’s seen a ghost. Bryna notes she’s a little off. * We mess around at the bar for a while, and learn a lot of interesting things. Gareth gets a little heated over the issue of undead (by which I mean he goes apeshit). He tells a story of how a group of adventurers, including him, faced off against a lich. He was the only survivor. * Angeal offers her fortune-telling services. She does Bryna first, and the vision she receives is a view of a castle in ruins. Strange! Angeal does Sulelia next, and what she sees next is… nothing. A haunting, endless, black expanse. Angeal decides to tell Sulelia she saw a beautiful, grassy field instead. How nice! * Apparently, Angeal talks to people inside her head, and talks to the Raven Queen, too. Such a connection between cleric and deity is virtually unheard of. She also sheds a bit of light on her past: when she was a child, she got her parents captured and detained in Helm’s Bastion after she discovered that they were followers of Orcus. Yeesh. That’s why she lives with her grandpa. * We eventually head home absolutely hammered.